Yes, they pledged allegiance to a large far-away government, but what happened at home was to be a product of their own decision-making—and not that of any outsider.
Enter the players for the drama: The Allen Clan, led by Floyd Allen, versus the judicial system of Carroll County, headed by Judge Thorton L. Massie.
Things began to heat up in the spring of 1911. Floyd Allen's sister's sons—Wesley Edwards and Sidna Edwards—were involved in a fight outside the church of their uncle, Garland Allen. The fracas apparently was a continuation of a previous altercation.
A short time later, the Edwards' boys, who were in their twenties, were indicted for interfering with a public worship. Upon learning of the indictment, the young men fled to Mt. Airy, North Carolina. The sheriff in Mt. Airy was contacted and he arrested the Edwards brothers and sent word to the authorities back in Carroll County. Deputies Pink Samuels and Peter Easter were dispatched to pick up the young men and bring them back to Hillsville, though they went without the extradition papers that would have legalized this action.
The road the deputies chose to come back from Mt. Airy led past the home and store of Sidna Allen—another Allen brother. As the two deputies and the two Edwards brothers reached Sidna Allen's home, they were confronted by Floyd Allen. Seeing his nephews tied and trussed caused Floyd Allen's considerable temper to kindle to new heights. He felt the deputies had tied the Edwardses too tightly and then decided to parade them past the Allen home, as if to taunt him. He demanded that his nephews be untied. Samuels refused and threatened to pull his pistol. Before he could do so, Allen pulled Samuels from the buggy and struck him across the head with a pistol. Samuels finally pulled his pistol and Allen knocked it from his hand. Allen then released the prisoners into his own hands and sent the deputies on their way.
Sidna Allen summarized the Allen/Edwards' side of it in his memoirs: ''Wesley and Sidna had never been in trouble before, were neither dangerous nor desperate, and were charged only with committing a misdemeanor: yet they were not only handcuffed but also tied to the buggies in which they rode with ropes, despite the fact that they were in the keeping of two strong and well-armed men."
The next day Floyd Allen took his nephews to town and gave them up to authorities, whereupon he was charged with illegal rescue of prisoners. After many continuances, trial was set for March 13, 1912.
The Allen clan as a whole was close, strongly marked by the blood-runsdeeper sentiment among mountain people. Like all people of power, they attracted other influential people, but their grassroots popularity was with the working people, the shop owners and the moonshiners, whose occupation they apparently took part in.
There is little known of the court except by all reports, Judge Thornton L. Massie was a good and thorough judge. He was one of the first judges appointed in Virginia. Commonwealth Attorney William Foster, Sheriff Lewis Webb, and Clerk of Court Dexter Goad were all competent in their respective jobs. Jury foreman Augustus Fowler was about 50 years old and had nothing of note to do with the Allens except he was foreman of the jury at Floyd Allen's trial.
In fact, it is generally understood that passing sentence on Floyd Allen may carry grave consequences. There is a strong precedent in Carroll County: Numerous times the courts have given only fines to Allen when a jail sentence was called for under normal circumstances. Another reason for both the attendance and the tension: Three weeks before the Floyd Allen trial a letter is received by Commonwealth Attorney Foster, promising he will die if Allen is found guilty. The letter is taken to Judge Massie and a request made for extra deputies and a search for arms among the spectators.
Massie denied the request saying, "I think this would show cowardice on our part.'' Sheriff Webb apparently feels the Allens are running a bluff and expects no real trouble. At any rate, no extra deputies are called and no search of spectators is made.
The trial begins with attorneys Judge Bolen and Walter Tipton for Allen and William Foster as prosecutor. The battle rages on throughout the day and toward evening it becomes evident that the verdict and, if needed, sentencing will need to be done Thursday, March 14.
Before dismissing the jury for the night, the judge instructs them as to their duty: interfering with an officer is a serious offense he tells them. And a prison term must be imposed if a guilty verdict is returned. It is to be a sentence of not more than five but not less than one year. It is the jury's duty to find a verdict and fix the sentence. The court then retires, to be reconvened Thursday morning at 8 a. m. The judge hopes that since the normal court opening time is 9 a.m. the Allen case can be dispensed with rapidly and the normal caseload handled in due time. He apparently also hopes that the early hour will serve to dampen the spirits of the Allens.
The crowd arrives before the hour, waiting so they may enter the courtroom to hear every word and see every action.
According to reports from the Mt. Airy News: "In groups here and there, in low tones, they whispered to each other their thoughts about the tragedy that most men expected would be enacted when court convened."
The Allen family is again well represented: Floyd's sons Victor and Claude, Sidna Allen, Jack Allen's son Friel, Sidna and Wesley Edwards and a sprinkling of other relatives.
When the court is in place and the hands of the clock approach 8:30, the sheriff calls court to order. Judge Massie asks the foreman of the jury if they have reached a verdict. The sentence is set at one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
A motion to set aside the verdict is denied by Judge Massie, as is a request for bail. The judge instructs the sheriff to take charge of the prisoner.
Judge Bolen, Floyd Allen's attorney, will testify later that as the verdict is read he instructs Allen to, "Take it quietly, Floyd, there's a brighter day coming for you.”
Allen's reply: “I’m going to take it calm, but I hate it on account of my boys."
But as the sheriff moves toward Floyd Allen to take him as a prisoner, Allen stands and speaks: ''Gentlemen, I just ain't goin.'” At this he reaches to unbutton his coat and the gleam of a pistol appears. The courtroom is in immediate chaos.
It appears that Claude Allen killed Judge Massie with a shot from the northeast corner of the room. Sidna Allen was to Claude's right and was firing also. Dexter Goad, the clerk of the court, stepped down from his desk to the floor and attempted to pull his pistol but it had hung in his holster and he was shot in the cheek, the bullet coming out his neck. The sheriff was cut down without firing a shot.
The judge and the sheriff were dead and the Allens had concentrated their fire on William Foster, the Commonwealth Attorney, who was walking up and down the opposite side of the courtroom from where the Allens were firing. Foster had been hit in the chest several times and still was returning fire until he received two shots to the head. Miraculously, the doomed man walked from the courtroom, crossed the grand jury room—a distance of 10 or 15 feet—and fell dead. Later they were to find that he had six mortal wounds, four in the chest and two in his brain. With his death every high court official of Carroll County had been killed.
But the battle was far from over. The Allens now concentrated their fire on the jurors. With the first volley of fire, jury foreman Augustus Fowler was killed by a bullet to the head. Other helpless members of the jury were being fired upon. Andrew Howlett and Stuart Worrell were wounded. Dexter Goad was crouched and returning fire upon the Allens.
Goad's daughter, Jezebel, had run to her father's aid from the clerk's office and was attempting to pull him from the courtroom. But he pushed her away and continued to battle the Allens.
Jezebel, seeing one of the clan in front of the door barring escape from the courtroom, grabbed her father and pulled him from the doorway. Then, seeing an Allen with a gun within reach, she grabbed his gun hand and, with the aid of another courtroom visitor, took the gun from him. This allowed the remaining members of the jury to escape into the courtyard. The Allens followed and took shots at them from the front of the courthouse. At some point, Floyd Allen took a bullet to the knee.
Dexter Goad followed to the courthouse steps and fired on Sidna Allen. The Allens returned his fire as the remaining jurors fled. The resulting bullet holes in the steps of the courthouse remain today.
The Allens then retreated to the livery stable from where they were to make their escape by horseback. As Floyd Allen attempted to mount his horse, his bullet-shattered knee gave way and he became sick and vomited. The clan decided Floyd was too hurt to ride, so he and his son, Victor, were put up at the hotel while the rest of the clan escaped.
The death of Sheriff Webb left Carroll County without law enforcement as, in 1912, the law of Virginia stated that when a sheriff died, the deputies lost their power. Carroll County was virtually without law.
The assistant clerk of the court, Floyd Landreth, realized this and sent the following telegram to Governor William H. Mann—collect:
"Send troops to the County of Carroll at once. Mob violence, the court, commonwealth attorney, sheriff and some jurors and others shot on conviction of Floyd Allen for a felony. Sheriff and Commonwealth's Attorney dead. Court serious. Look after this now."
The Baldwin-Felts detective agency of Roanoke. Virginia, which would later become notorious for its ruthless acts in the West Virginia coal wars, was dispatched by train to hunt the Allen clan. They arrived in Galax, but the weather was so bad and the creeks so swollen that wagons couldn't pass. They walked the last few miles to Hillsville.
Hillsville and Carroll County were in complete chaos. A short time before they had been a simple mountain town and county. Now they were the subject of news stories by writers from all over the world. Townspeople posed for photographers and answered questions. By a Mt. Airy News account, as many as 30 Baldwin-Felts detectives were in Hillsville.
Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards were now wanted men, with prices on their heads. Governor Mann offered a $1,000 reward for Sidna Allen, and $800 for Wesley Edwards. But the Baldwin-Felts men were not familiar with the land or the people, and the duo easily eluded the big-city detectives.
Within two months the fugitives were in Des Moines, Iowa, working as carpenters; and six months to the day after the courthouse tragedy, Allen and Edwards were arrested by Baldwin-Felts detectives in a boarding house. At every whistlestop on their return to Roanoke, there was a throng to see the infamous fugitives.
There was a strong belief that Wesley Edwards' sweetheart. Maude Iroller, had tipped the detectives as to where they were and in effect led them to the outlaws in exchange for $500. But others have speculated that it was her father, who had long disapproved of his daughter's relationship with Wesley.
On May 18, 1912, Floyd Allen was found guilty of the murder of William Foster, the Commonwealth Attorney. He was sentenced to die by electrocution. Claude Allen went through three trials before he was found guilty and also was sentenced to death.
Friel Allen was tried in August and confessed to shooting Foster. His sentence was 18 years in prison. Sidna Allen was sentenced to 35 years and Wesley Edwards to 27 years.
Despite thousands of signatures on petitions requesting commutation of Claude Allen's sentence and possible technical delays caused by the governor's absence from office, Claude died at 1:30 p.m. on March 28, 1913, just 11 minutes after the electrocution of his father, Floyd Allen.
There was pressure on the governor to pardon members of the Allen family in the early 1920s, when Sidna Edwards, Friel Allen, Wesley Edwards and Sidna Allen were still in prison as a result of their part of the 1912 Hillsville shooting.
Sidna Edwards and Friel Allen were indeed pardoned in the early '20s, but Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards remained in prison. The reason given for the disparity was that these two surrendered while Sidna Allen and his nephew had fled.
In 1926, Harry F. Byrd pardoned Sidna Allen and Wesley Edwards. The legend goes that the tombstone disappeared at this time and talk follows that this was part of the agreement for the pardon.
A reliable source in Hillsville relates that he has seen that tombstone but cannot comment on any agreements that may have been made with the state.